Professional needs of prenatal care providers: A review of Iranian researches

Introduction: Prenatal care is a good opportunity for care providers to support pregnant women in providing maternal, fetal and family health. To achieve this, prenatal care providers should have adequate and comprehensive capabilities. The purpose of this study is to review Iranian studies which have evaluated the professional needs of prenatal care providers. Methods: In this non-systematic review conducted in 2017, Using the keywords of professional needs and prenatal care providers, Iranian published studies in internal and external journals were searched in scientific databases of Science Direct, Cochran library, PubMed, SID and Magiran from 1997 to 2017. The exclusion criteria included articles that were not consistent with the purpose of research, were outside the purpuse of this study and were case report or letter to the editor articles. Out of 436 Iranian articles,16 interactive and descriptive articles reviewed. Results: The professional needs of Iranian pregnancy care providers in the research studies are presented in the following sections: knowledge and practice, communication skills, professional rules - regulations and religious orders. Conclusion: The findings of Iranian studies showed that in order to provide better prenatal care and promote community health, it is necessary to identify professional needs of providers and try to remove them.